Log in

(forget I said that)

I was a touch late arriving - just a few minutes - due to lack of organisation. This was the same lack of organisation that led to me not making sure that our scheduled guest DJ knew that he was supposed to be there, in fact. By the time I arrived, acerbic comments had doubtless already been swapped and scy11a was behind the wheels of steel entertaining the assembled oligotude. It was slow going for the first while, but the place filled reasonably well. At some point the coach party must have arrived, because we ended up having about half again what we usually do. Most impressive.

I chatted to people (various) until 10:30 and then played a few groovy beat records until twelve, at which point Sarah went back on for an hour and I took over again for the last hour. At this point, slick with sweat and doubtless utterly rank, I went home.

I enjoyed myself. It was a bit ropy until the Clash went on, and after that mistakes seemed to become impossible. The spirit of Comrade Joe must have taken over the room.

Anyway, many thanks to everyone who came along, especially the ones who came some distance. it was lovely to see you all. I'd make a list here, but it'd be so incredibly long . . . and I'd still forget people. And thanks for the kind comments, too. I had an excellent time, mainly because it seemed to be going well and people were mostly enjoying themselves. I think last night will be my lasting memory of The Calling. Thank you all.

Inspired by 'oh, so that was Mclusky then' thoughts I finally got my ass over to their website. I now have the second album sitting in my shopping basket at Amazon while I decide whether to add something else to get free shipping or not (I'm only 63p short, and it's false economy I'm sure).

There's no connection with the link. It's just the single that I had playing at the time, which doesn't seem to be too expensive. It's not actually Amazon selling it, though, so it probably doesn't help with your quandary.

Yes. Gene Wolfe, for many years, worked as an engineer (and then as editor of an engineering journal) while writing in his copious free time. Eventually he retired and now just writes. One of the jobs he had was to design an oven for a particular baking job. Nothing amazing - just an oven, to fit a particular production process. For Pringles.

Not actually a fascinating story, I'm afraid. And no, I don't view eating Pringles as a homage.

Are you *trying* to make me spend money? :p I placed the order in the end. I just went for the Mclusky album and RSH and Nikki Sudden's "Kiss You Kidnapped Charabanc/Live in Ausberg [LIVE]", I've saved the rest for later.

I didn't know they needed a special oven. You learn something every day. I do like the paprika ones.

Not much. It was the cheapest thing I could find. I was hoping to find a mondo cheap 7", but they don't seem to have any. Too Pure (IIRC) have two or three Mclusky 7"s for a quid each.

The other ones sound good. You'll have to tell me what they're like once you have them.

It's a big plant. All the gear's specially-designed, I think. No weird technology, just an oven designed to cook objects of a particular size and composition, I guess. He has commented on it somewhere - as an engineer, he advocated making the potato disks thicker, so they'd crack less often. The marketing people were prepared to accept breakage if it meant they'd get more thinner disks in a tube - so that customers would feel they were getting better value.

I'm sorry I couldn't be there.I know I moved away first, but damn you, boy, I'm going to miss you. You've been a wonderful friend and then some, and a generous and sweet (and terribly forgiving) housemate.I hope your new life in Edinburgh brings you what you've been looking for. Good luck.